Ailish the Half Blind

Sheltered by her father's feet, Ailish listened to the adult-talk. She could understand the words they used, but not the sentences they were used in. She was too young to fully grasp what they talked about. But she understood tone. Not just musical tone, as her father taught her to sing and listen to song, but tone of voice, tone of meaning; the adults talked in dark, apprehensive tones. And Ailish was frightened. Perhaps a normal state from her mouse-blood heritage, yet Ailish understood this fear to be beyond normal timid reactions.

Her father's tone grew sharper, his will dominating the others more and more with each passing moment. Ailish clung to his leg. Not only were the adults frightening her, but their home began to tremble ever so slightly, a rythmic rumbling. She knew the song that created such a shaking. The other adults turn to argue among themselves as Ailish's father bent down and whispered to his daughter.

"Ah, my little Half-blind. You cannot see it, but you know there is something to be feared, don't you?"

Ailish nodded, her wide eyes taking in her father's visage. Suddenly, it occured to her that being afraid wouldn't do. She would be her father's daughter, strong and brave as he was. She lifted her small chin up and gave her best "I am brave!" face. Her father chuckled, despite the dark mood permeating their home.

"Yes, you can be a brave one, my dear. Just like your mother was when I revealed my real self to her those many years ago. I think perhaps, it is time you went into the world, and discovered how brave you can really be, little one."

Ailish regarded her father for a moment. "We're we going, Da?"

Her father shook his head, and sighed.

"Not us, little Half-Blind. You must go alone. And you must leave soon. This place will not be safe, and I must face what approaches"

Ailish's eyes grew wide, realizing her father was not taking her on some outing to see the world beyond, but sending her away! She shook her head and clung to his leg as tightly as she could.

"Little Half-blind... you must. You know the songs I've taught you. You know the magic I've sung to you. You must go out and discover more, on your own. Perhaps you will no longer be the little Half-Blind then, see everything as I do." Ailish's father gently pried her from his leg and lifted her onto his broad back.

Ailish clung to her father tightly. "Will I be able to come back?" she asked as felt his warmth, ingrained it into her memory.

"When you find yourself, little one, you will go where ever you desire," her father said solemnly. "Such is the will of Dragons".

With a great leap, her father soared upwards. Above them, the outside world waited. Ailish squinted as her father rose from the cavern out into the open, and it's glowing red sun setting in the western skies.

As Ailish climbed off her father's back, her father dropped a small pack near her. Ailish could hear the jingle of coins and bottles and other trinkets in the pack. This was all so sudden! Yet she sensed that time was growing short. The rythmic rumbling grew with each passing moment. She could hear a deep baritone voice singing the magic song.

"Go, my little halfblind mouse... become a Dragon". With that last command, her father, an ancient red Dragon himself, returned to the depths of the cavern.

Ailish picked up her pack, and peered into the cavern after her father. "I'll be back soon, Da! I promise!" She waited for a reply, but all she heared was a sudden roar of the adults, and the defiant voice of an older human returning insult for insult in the Draconic tongue, sounds of a vicious battle erupting from the place she knew as her home, sounds which were simply too frightful for even a brave mouseblooded Dragon such as herself. With a "Meep!", she scurried away from the cavern, running towards the forests beyond the foot of the mountain, away from the frightful battle.

It would be well into the night, running many hard miles, before Ailish the Half-Blind would stop for a rest. She had wandered into a village. She stopped in front of one of the buildings. Not as secure and safe as her home back in the caverns she thought to herself. It was barely a shack made out of twigs and little rocks barely as large as herself! But the sign. "The Sleeping Dragon"....

Well, her father did want her to become a Dragon, and she was sleepy... It was a good sign to her. A good sign indeed...